As a beekeeper I am often asked many questions about bees and beekeeping. One of the more common questions is “do you get stung” usually followed by the “how many times”.

One other common question is “do you eat honey”. The answer to both is always an emphatic yes.

Recently I did something with honey that I had not previously done, taste honey. Sponsored by Lake Champlain Chocolates along with Mara Welton of Slow Food Vermont and the Vermont Beekeepers Association hundreds of visitors spent four hours at Lake Champlain Chocolates learning how to “taste”. The Vermont Beekeepers Association provided a variety of honey flavors and textures, Slow Food Vermont (vermontslowfood.org) offered flavors from bitter to umami, and Lake Champlain Chocolates provided luscious honey infused chocolate samples.

We all had a sweet time as we tried to describe the different flavors or tones in the products we sampled.

(VBA Members: Login to the Members Only area of the site to download a flyer prepared by Mara to help with categorizing the tastes.)